a700hitter

That just means that it was not a published stat by MLB. People in the game knew about it. It is easily done with a paper and pencil. There is no need for a powerful PC based program. Branch Rickey probably did those calcs in his head. Lol!

and rightly so. He was a worthy opponent and deserves our respect.

What does "official statistic" mean -- on the back of Topps Baseball cards? It's just a simple math calculation. Certainly,GMs prior to 1980 could get their hands on those numbers. And it really is as simple as "a walk being as good as a hit." Little league coaches have been barking that since there has been a little league.

Nava is one of the stupidest base runners that I have ever seen. He's right up there with Hubie Brooks-- if anyone remembers him.

And Bell, you know the game and you are good sport. You are right. The game is not that complicated. NO matter what advanced metrics people come up with this game will never be a science. Teddy Ballgame was as cerebral as anyone about hitting and he was very much into the actual physics of hitting, e.g. acs of swings broken down into degrees etc. His book was called the Science of Hitting. And the game does obey thaws of physics as does everything else in life, but the dynamics of building a winning team are not and never will be science.

When you read statements like this, the opposite is usually true. It is like when ownership gives a manager a vote of confidence. That is usually followed shortly by the manager's firing.

Congratulations! It will be a while before you can watch full Red Sox games on a regular basis--- a couple of years. Hang in there.

I am a little tired of the season long Jeter- farewell tour. I find it unbecoming that he goes from city to city grabbing as many gifts as he can carry and the Yankees capitalizing on it as a money making endeavor. I always hear the word "classy" used when describing Jeter, but this fairwell tour has been anything but classy or dignifified. My recollection was that when Yaz announced that 1983 would be his final season, he insisted that there be no special ceremonies or gifts in each city. The league obliged. I researched it to see if I could find anything about the way he left the game and found the following article. He left the game with dignity and class. http://greghoard.com/2013/03/07/yaz/

LOL!! But Colon was talented at one time. In fact, for a fat guy, he was pretty athletic when he was young. I saw hi shaggingg flies at Fenway when he was with the Angels. The guy was good. He was agile and fairly fleet of foot. Middlebrooks is, as my dad used to say, a big stiff.

I think the way to fix the big clod is to get him a talent transplant. If he wants to have a chance to be on the squad next season, he will have to go to winter ball, play every day, and tear it up. I don't think that happens, so he might not even get an invitation to ST with the big club, especially if they sign or trade for an infielder..

He might just stink. No philosophy can save stink.

The last of Jeter's 2,000 career bitch hits to RF.

I just don't remember him being a clubhouse problem.

Congratulations to SFoC. You went wire to wire and dominated the league.

I like it. Third base is an open position. I thought Betts should be moved there since he is an IFer, but maybe he doesn't have a strong enough arm. Cespedes is a heart attack as a fly chaser, but he has a gun. Maybe third would be a good fit for him.

Agreed. Hitting is always better than not hitting, unless it is against your team's pitching. That said, I still don't think that he is a good SS. He needs to improve his lateral movement on balls up the middle and he needs to get better at charging balls.

Rusney is not looking too hot. Hopefully, he is just shaking off some rust. It would be a nightmare if he and Bradley ended up forming some sub-Mendoza line platoon next season. LOL!! Seriously, if Rusney is a bust, the organization will need to clearout the scouting and talent development operations. They would be much better off hiring our Doji.

Maybe or or maybe Septemmber performances mean nothing. I learned that lesson many years ago when I purchased a bunch of Kevin Maas baseball cards.

Bell, you are a great poster, and I think that you are about my age, so I have to ask whether you grew up under a rock when it comes to OBP. I undertand the punk ass kids thinking they invented OBP along with sex. LOL! But I can't understand how you think it is a new concept. My dad told me about it when I was a kid. Every great hitter that I ever heard talk about hitting stressed the importance of getting a good pitch to hit and taking their walks. GMs had basic math available to them in the 50's and 60's and they understood the importance of being a patient hitter. There just wasn't an obsession with OBP, because it is not the be all and end all in winning baseball. Sometimes the hitter needs to hack at a 3-1 pitch that is questionable if there are runners in scoring position with 2 out or when there is a man on third with 1 out and Joe McDoofus (AKA Bradley) is on deck and Steven Drew McDoofus is up after him. That would be winning smart baseball. Adding to your OBP there would be pointless. Situational baseball is still the best way to win games, but it doesn't build money stats and OBP has become a money stat rehgardless of production, I.e. Runs score and the popularly hated RBI. OBP has always been around as an important factor. It just wasn't cited as the bible. I laugh when people think that Billy Beane invented it. It is now an overdone statistic, because so much emphasis has been put on it that it is no longer a means to an end but rather the objective of a lot of players and GMs. The other thing that is ridiculously overdone is the shift. HOw's that working out for the genius Maddon this year.

And the data also shows that hitting with 2 strikes does not have a high probability of success. TeddyBallgame always preached getting a good pitch to hit and he rarely swung at the first pitch. He walked a lot in his day. I think he was second to Ruth when he retired. He also preached about getting into a good hitters count 2-0, 3-1. He knew that 1-2 or 0-2 put the hitter at a huge disadvantage. Driving up the pitch count is meaningless if the pitcher is consistently getting ahead of the hitters.

The only positive thing that I can say about Ranaudo is that he is tall.

He is at best average at the position.

If the skanks get eliminated, will Jeter take his last AB at Yankee Stadium and not make the trip to Boston?

He might hit, but he can't play SS.

We need a SS.